who _tutoyed_ every one alike.
He was eager to hear about the bitter strife of parties, of the
statesmen in power, of the chances of work, gathering with intelligence
such information as might be of service, until at last it struck eight
bells and the captain declared that he must go to bed.

The young man thanked him and added, "I shall like it, oh, far better
than England."

"I hope so, Wicount; but of this I am sure, men will like you and, by
George, women, too!"

De Courval laughed merrily. "You flatter me, Captain."

"No. Being at sea six weeks with a man is as good as being married, for
the knowing of him--the good and the bad of him."

"And my mother, will she like it?"

"Ah, now, that I cannot tell. Good night."

II

When in a morning of brilliant sunshine again, with the flood and a
favoring wind, the brig moved up-stream alone on the broad water, Madame
de Courval came on deck for the midday meal. Her son hung over her as
she ate, and saw with gladness the faint pink in her cheeks, and,
well-pleased, translated her questions to the captain as he proudly
pointed out the objects of interest when they neared the city of Penn.
There was the fort at Red Bank where the Hessians failed, and that was
the Swedes' church, and there the single spire of Christ Church rising
high over the red brick city, as madam said, of the color of Amsterdam.

Off the mouth of Dock Creek they came to anchor, the captain advising
them to wait on shipboard until he returned, and to be ready then to go
ashore.

When their simple preparations were completed, De Courval came on deck,
and, climbing the rigging, settled himself in the crosstrees to take
counsel with his pipe, and to be for a time alone and away from the
boat-loads of people eager for letters and for news from France and
England.

The mile-wide river was almost without a sail. A few lazy fishers and
the slowly moving vans of the mill on Wind Mill Island had little to
interest. As he saw it from his perch, the city front was busy and
represented the sudden prosperity which came with the sense of
permanence the administration of Washington seemed to guarantee for the
great bond under which a nation was to grow. There was the town
stretching north and south along the Delaware, and beyond it woodland.
What did it hold for him? The mood of reflection was no rare one for a
man of twenty-five who had lived through months of peril in France, amid
peasants hostile